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Cross, Mark

Page history last edited by PBworks 18 years, 3 months ago

Mark Cross was a pseudonym of Archibald Thomas Pechey (1876-1961). Pechey was a lyricist and father of the British television cook Fanny Craddock. His books feature 'The Adjusters', vigilante righters of wrongs. He also wrote under the name 'Valentine'.

Mike Grost on 'Valentine'

Valentine's "An Exploit of The Adjusters: The Man Who Scared The Bank" (1929) deals with a group of anonymous amateurs who fight crime. The Adjusters were born long after Edgar Wallace's Four Just Men (1905). They bear a family resemblance, as a multi-talented team who solve crimes and capture criminals that cannot be touched by the police, but seem to be far less political than Wallace's heroes. Valentine's characters are all well bred, upper class Englishmen, too, unlike the more cosmopolitan Wallace's foreigners. This Wallace-Valentine tradition of lively teams of amateur crime fighters would last in Britain at least into the 1960's, with The Avengers, one of my favorite TV shows as a kid (I watched them when they first came out). The Adjusters mix detective work with adventure. This mix of genres, and their fun, upbeat approach, seems similar to Agatha Christie in such light hearted works as the Tommy and Tuppence stories, and Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

The Adjusters use their diverse talents to launch complex schemes that trick criminals into trapping themselves. Their approach also seems similar to another 60's TV show, Mission Impossible. However, the ingenious scheme of The Adjusters in "The Man Who Scared The Bank" is closer to the puzzle plot tradition than are the gambits of the IMF Force. Their device to trap the criminal involves a "logical analysis" of his crime itself, and an attempt to counteract this. It shows a Borges like cleverness, and functions almost as a critical commentary on the criminal's actions.

Valentine is a pseudonym. He later changed his pen name to the more macho sounding "Mark Cross", publishing a large series of books about The Adjusters. He is not to be confused with Valentine Williams, who was one of the writers spoofed by Christie in Partners in Crime. Valentine Williams had created the Okewood Brothers, two young men who work for the Secret Service, and it is these tales that Christie affectionately burlesques. Nor should Valentine be confused with Valentine Davies, the author of the story on which the film classic Miracle on 34th Street was based. Nor with the Hungarian Renaissance composer Valentine Bakfark, whose harpsichord music is delightful. Nor with silent screen idol Rudolph Valentino. Be my Valentine...